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Journalism of Courage
On this day in 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead. Gandhi had left his room at New Delhi’s Birla House for a prayer meeting, a little after 5 pm, running late. As he made his way through the crowd, a young man walked up and greeted him. Even as Gandhi replied, the man fired three bullets straight into the frail body. The old man fell, ‘Hey Ram’ on his lips.
The next few hours saw an outpouring of grief and confusion across the nation. At Birla House, crowds swelled, pressing at the gates. Jawaharlal Nehru, who had arrived only after his guru and mentor had breathed his last, came out to speak to the crowds. That speech has not been recorded. We know only that Nehru broke down thrice while he spoke. But soon after, the Prime Minister addressed the nation on All India Radio, speaking beautifully, movingly, about the man Indians had lost, and his teaching they needed to remember.
This iconic speech began with ‘The light has gone out of our lives’.
“The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere. I do not know what to tell you and how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the Father of the Nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that. Nevertheless, we will never see him again as we have seen him for these many years. We will not run to him for advice and seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not to me only, but to millions and millions in this country. And it is a little difficult to soften the blow by any other advice that I or anyone else can give you,” the Prime Minister said.
However, he was quick to highlight that while the “light” may have gone out, it would continue to illumine. “The light has gone out, I said, and yet I was wrong. For the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light. The light that has illumined this country for these many years will illumine this country for many more years, and a thousand years later, that light will be seen in this country and the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts. For that light represented something more than the immediate past, it represented the living, the eternal truths, reminding us of the right path, drawing us from error, taking this ancient country to freedom,” Nehru further said.
He then reminded the grief-stricken nation that this was not the time for rage and pettiness, but to imbibe the greatness of the ideals Gandhi had stood for.
“A madman has put an end to his life, for I can only call him mad who did it, and yet there has been enough of poison spread in this country during the past years and months, and this poison has had an effect on people’s minds. We must face this poison, we must root out this poison, and we must face all the perils that encompass us, and face them not madly or badly, but rather in the way that our beloved teacher taught us to face them.
The first thing to remember now is that none of us dare misbehave because he is angry. We have to behave like strong and determined people, determined to face all the perils that surround us, determined to carry out the mandate that our great teacher and our great leader has given us, remembering always that if, as I believe, his spirit looks upon us and sees us, nothing would displease his soul so much as to see that we have indulged in any small behaviour or any violence,” the Prime Minister said.
Nehru then said that being calm did not mean being weak, and asserted the need for Indians to stay united.
“But that does not mean that we should be weak, but rather that we should, in strength and in unity, face all the troubles that are in front of us. We must hold together, and all our petty troubles and difficulties and conflicts must be ended in the face of this great disaster. A great disaster is a symbol to us to remember all the big things of life and forget the small things of which we have thought too much. In his death he has reminded us of the big things of life, the living truth, and if we remember that, then it will be well with India,” he added.
A few days later, Nehru spoke in the Constituent Assembly about Gandhi’s death. Here too, he evoked the themes of light and darkness. “A glory has departed and the sun that warmed and brightened our lives has set and we shiver in the cold and dark. Yet he would not have us feel this way after all the glory that we saw, for all these years that man with divine fire changed us also, and, such as we are, we have been moulded by him during these years and out of that divine fire many of us also took a small spark which strengthened and made us work to some extent on the lines that he fashioned…”
However, while in his earlier, spontaneous speech, he had called Nathuram Godse a “madman”, this time, he called him one of Gandhi’s children, while againb referring to the poison of communalism in the country.
“He made this country during the last thirty years or more attain to heights of sacrifice which in that particular domain have never been equalled elsewhere. He succeeded in that, yet ultimately things happened which, no doubt, made him suffer tremendously, though his tender face never lost its smile and he never spoke a harsh word to anyone. Yet he must have suffered, suffered for the failing of this generation whom he had trained, suffered because we went away from the path that he had shown us, and ultimately the hand of a child of his – for he, after all, is as much a child of his as any other Indian – the hand of that child of his struck him down,” Nehru said.
Years later, when Pope John Paul II visited Raj Ghat in 1986, he referred to Nehru’s speech.
“The figure of Mahatma Gandhi and the meaning of his life’s work have penetrated the consciousness of humanity. In his famous words, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has expressed the conviction of the whole world: “The light that shone in this country was no ordinary light” . Two days ago marked the thirty-eighth anniversary of his death. He who lived by non-violence appeared to be defeated by violence. For a brief moment the light seemed to have gone out. Yet his teachings and the example of his life live on in the minds and hearts of millions of men and women… Yes, the light is still shining, and the heritage of Mahatma Gandhi speaks to us still. And today as a pilgrim of peace I have come here to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi, hero of humanity,” the Pope said.
